FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT TOMMY LASORDA - PAGE 4

Mike North of "The Mike North Morning Show" on The Score (670-AM) sits in on Wednesdays. Sign up at redeyechicago.com/fiveonfive. Jimmy Greenfield Phillip Thompson Leo Ebersole Tracy Swartz Mike North TOPIC 1: WHAT DID CONGRESS ACCOMPLISH ON TUESDAY? They agreed to give free steroids to all seniors. They finally found a group that looks even more disorganized and ineffective than they do. Somebody farted. The motion was briefly considered, then seconded.

Tell it to the King By Larry King with Peter Occhiogrosso Putnam, 285 pages, $16.95 Larry King is one of the most popular talk show hosts in America today, starring in highly rated nationally syndicated radio and television programs. Yet he presents himself as a regular guy who got lucky in life. Even after 30 years in broadcasting he is still amazed that he, Larry Zeiger (King's real name), the little nebbish from Brooklyn, makes all this money and gets to associate with all these famous people.

LOS ANGELES - John Danks will visit orthopedic surgeon Gregory Nicholson on Monday instead of theU.S. Cellular Field pitcher's mound. Danks will be examined to determine the extent of the soreness in his left shoulder that ended his hopes of returning to the White Sox rotation against the Cubs. Danks played catch before Friday night's game but didn't feel he had progressed enough to pitch Monday. "It's enough to keep me from throwing," Danks said. "I've thrown with a sore arm before.

Roger Craig and Tommy Lasorda, the men who currently preside over the Giants-Dodgers rivalry, were teammates in Brooklyn's 1955 championship season. Before then, they were pitching together in Cuba. "We were in Havana, pitching for the Montreal Royals (the Dodgers` Triple-A club)," Craig told the San Francisco Chronicle. "I was having a great year (10-2), and Tommy was no slouch, himself. This one day we both pitched shutouts in a double-header down there, and the Dodgers were ready to call somebody up. "It turned out to be me. "I`m sure if it had been up to the people in Havana," Craig says, "Tommy would have been the choice.

It is over for the Los Angeles Dodgers, but we have not seen the last of Tommy Lasorda until spring training. Next week, the World Series champions will head to the White House for a compulsory exercise. "Do you like Quayle?" Ronald Reagan will ask. "Whatever you wish, Mr. President," Tommy will reply, "although I prefer veal scallopini." Then next month, out of the kindness of his heart and his wallet, Dodger owner Peter O`Malley will fly all staff workers to Rome for rest, relaxation and Rolaids.

There is no such thing as an excessive celebration in the Olympics, not when it concerns a gold medal and not when it concerns Americans. U.S. athletes have it down to a science these days. Point to the sky (God), wave the U.S. flag (country) and shed a few tears (future Nike commercial). This brings us to the U.S. baseball team, which beat Cuba on Wednesday night to win the gold medal. None of what happened after the final out, a skidding, look-what-I-found catch by left-fielder Mike Neill, looked contrived.

Spring training begins in the orange groves, or where orange groves used to be. Nature is losing to paved and numbered parking spots, to pieces of paradise with a view. Tomorrow climbs over itself balcony by balcony toward a textured sky, puffy with clouds and blue promise. The air smells less of fruit blossoms than fresh road tar. The turnpike exit is to Dodgertown. You have been here before. But something seems wrong. The first player you see is Gary Carter, last obvious as a New York Met. Carter is catching batting practice.

Mark Grace is eligible to come off the disabled list Wednesday, but Cubs manager Jim Riggleman is putting off making any decisions on his first-baseman's status. Grace took batting practice Tuesday afternoon and worked out in the field. Riggleman indicated he wanted to see how Grace, who's suffering from back strain, feels when he wakes up in the morning. "(General manager) Ed Lynch and I have been talking about it and are putting off a decision until the last minute," he said.

Former manager Los Angeles Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda was admitted to an Inglewood hospital Friday night after experiencing chest pains, the team said. Doctors at Centinela Hospital Medical Center performed a repeat angioplasty after an artery that was operated on June 26 closed, according to a statement. "Lasorda is in excellent condition with no heart damage," the Dodgers' statement said. The team did not immediately return a phone message Friday night. Lasorda, 68, first entered the hospital June 24 complaining of abdominal pains.

DETROIT (Reuters) - Nearly three decades after leaving Detroit as a World Series loser, San Francisco Giants manager Bruce Bochy exited the Motor City on Sunday as a champion after a 4-3 win over the Tigers capped a four-game Fall Classic sweep. As a reserve catcher for San Diego, Bochy made his only appearance in the World Series as player in 1984 and had one at-bat as the Padres fell in five games to the Tigers. The 57-year-old manager will now have much happier memories of Detroit as the Giants produced a stunning tour de force to take the World Series trophy back to San Francisco for the second time in three years.